Machar: the Washington Congregation for Secular Humanistic Judaism

Rosh Hashanah is a fall festival at midpoint in the calendar, and originally NOT the new year. Traditionally, it was the anniversary of creation and the establishment of order. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, coming at mid-year, represent the peak of the year, just as Shabbat is the peak of the week.

The Shofar blows, the book opens, and the angel does the clerical work of inscribing. For us, however, we have to do our own "inscribing." This is a time of taking stock, of looking at our missteps and working out ways of making good. Fall is a time of judgment. If rains don't come, people will indeed die.

Our observances at Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidrei, and Yom Kippur retain elements of the anniversary of the creation and the day of atonement and judgment.

• Music, readings, meditative silence
• A celebration based on a historical  understanding
• Remembrances of loved ones who live on in our hearts and memories

Tashlikh and reverseTashlikh represents for us a time for letting go our regrets and guilts, after making good with others and with self. We suggest using an appropriate bread, e.g., rye for sarcasm. In reverse, sometimes we do some sort of clean-up project as a community.